1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus including a combination of a plurality of display means such as, for example, a display panel, etc.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, there has been much activity in research and development of flat displays such as liquid crystal displays, organic EL (electroluminescent) displays, and paper-like displays referred to as so-called electronic paper.
In particular, liquid crystal displays are widely implemented in various applications. For example, liquid crystal displays have become widespread as displays replacing CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) in televisions for indoor use. Liquid crystal displays are also broadly used in mobile equipment such as notebook PC's (Personal Computers), PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants), mobile telephones, video cameras, digital cameras, and electronic dictionaries, etc. for outdoor use. Further, organic EL displays already have been implemented in some mobile equipment and also may be implemented prospectively as electronic books with electronic paper.
These displays have the benefit of being flat and, as such, are indispensable for applications in mobile equipment. On the other hand, in recent years, the transmission and receipt of large volumes of information has become possible due to technological advancement with regard to increasing capacity of recording media, making signal processors high-speed, and increases in speed of forms of communication such as the Internet, telephony, and broadcasting, etc. It is therefore preferable for displays outputting human interfaces to be of high resolution and to be large so as to browse a lot of information at once.
However, if a large-type display is researched for mobile equipment, the equipment itself becomes large. It is therefore necessary for a display to be stored in a compact manner to ensure compatibility between compactness of equipment and largeness of a display. For example, methods exist for achieving compactness by folding away a display. However, edge portions of a display area are positioned at folding boundary portions and information at these portions is therefore lost. With regards to this, display apparatus for reducing a non-display region of a boundary portion are well-known (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2002-229485).
With the display apparatus described above, light-guiding sections such as optical fiber, etc. are necessary, and a volume and a weight of a display apparatus therefore increase by the extent of a portion for the thickness of the light-guiding sections in a folded mode. Further, complex operations are necessary to form these light-guiding sections.
In the present invention, it is desirable to provide a display apparatus employing a plurality of display means capable of reducing a non-displaying region with a simple configuration.